• Fugitive Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has declared he’s still the nation’s leader, and dozens of heavily armed gunmen have seized control of government buildings in Crimea;

• Girls star Adam Driver has reportedly been cast as the villain in the new Star Wars film.

LIVE UPDATES

9:54am

Extra police have been sent to the Queensland city of Mount Isa to search for a teenager who has been missing for almost a week.

Kyle Coleman, 17, was last seen at a house in the Soldiers Hill area at about 6am on Saturday.

It’s believed he’d earlier attended a party and was intending to walk the three kilometres from Soldiers Hill to his Parkside home, but he never arrived.

On Wednesday, police found the body of Kyle’s 21-year-old friend, who’d been involved in the search for the teenager.

Police say the death is not considered suspicious.

News_Image_File: Kyle Coleman hasn't been seen since February 22.

9:41am

Boeing is launching a self-destructing smartphone to help spies, diplomats and other secretive characters keep their information secure.

Don’t even think about trying to open or tamper with the Boeing Black phone, the company warns.

“There are no serviceable parts on Boeing’s Black phone and any attempted servicing or replacing of parts would destroy the product,” Boeing says in documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission.

“The Boeing Black phone is manufactured as a sealed device both with epoxy around the casing and with screws, the heads of which are covered with tamper proof covering to identify attempted disassembly.

“Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable.”

“I think the unions and our employees know that Qantas is in extremely difficult circumstances at the moment and the sensible heads out there know that the last thing you want to do is to be talking about industrial action,” Mr Joyce told ABC Radio.

“It just adds oil to the fire.”

The chief executive is resisting calls for his resignation, declaring he is the person to fix the airline’s woes.

“I believe I am the man, the board believes I am the man, the shareholders believe I am the man,” Mr Joyce said.

In its latest report on files leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Guardian claims a surveillance program operated by GCHQ, with aid from America’s National Security Agency, collected still images from Yahoo webcam chats in bulk.

He added that the decision is based on deep thought and reflection, inspired by the late South African leader Nelson Mandela and Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

A former resistance leader, Mr Gusmao became the first president of East Timor and its fourth prime minister since August 2007.

News_Image_File: East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

8:51am

Anxious Bitcoin investors in Tokyo have called for legal action against the chief executive of an exchange, from which hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the virtual currency appear to have vanished.

Dozens of members of “Bitcoin Tokyo” gathered in a restaurant yesterday in the Japanese capital, some nursing possible six-figure losses after an apparent grand theft from the digital vaults of the MtGox exchange.

“What happened at MtGox was first incompetence, but then it could have gone to fraud at the end if they were knowing they didn’t have the bitcoins they were selling,” says American IT engineer Aaron Gotman.

The scheme - the prime minister’s signature election campaign promise - offers working mothers on annual salaries of up to $150,000 full pay for six months of leave.

Coalition backbencher George Christensen is worried there isn’t enough assistance being offered to mothers who do not work.

“I really think that we need to be ensuring that there is something in place that’s going to be helping stay-at-home mothers,” he told ABC radio this morning.

Liberal senator Ian Macdonald thinks the scheme will be “modified”, while his Nationals colleague John Williams says he’ll have a problem with the policy if the unemployment rate doesn’t improve.

Mr Abbott has described the scheme as a “mighty social and economic advance” for women and families and has vowed to stick with it.

News_Image_File: Tony Abbott’s signature policy is under fire again.

8:33am

US Vice President Joe Biden has said he was frozen out by President Barack Obama’s White House for years after a famous gaffe, even after he did “every s*** job in the world” that Mr Obama didn’t want to do.

In a remarkably candid interview with Politico, the famously talkative Mr Biden opened up on his relationship with Mr Obama, admitting there has been an icy chill between the pair for years – with things only starting to thaw recently.

Mr Biden says when he became vice president, he did a deal with Mr Obama. He agreed to handle the less glamorous tasks in exchange for being the last person to have the president’s ear ahead of major decisions.

Researchers at Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System, who have diagnosed many cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also found evidence of the disease in American 29-year-old Patrick Grange, a semi-professional soccer player who died last April.

CTE has been diagnosed in boxers for many years, in American football players and ice hockey players more recently and last December for the first time in a baseball player.

Aussie Taylor played rugby for 19 years, including 235 games for Manly, but near the end of his life had severe memory loss.

“I took him for a walk and I was getting a lot of monosyllabic answers,” Taylor’s son Steven said. “I said, ‘What’s your name, mate?’ He looked at me and just shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s the point he got to. He didn’t even know who he was ... It was a great waste, a great shame, knowing that the last 20 years did not have to be like this.”

News_Image_File: Late Manly sporting champion Barry Taylor during his playing days with Manly rugby club.

The Italian parliament threw out a bill that would have injected fresh funding into the capital, putting the nation’s new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, under pressure. Mr Renzi had promised urgent measures to help Rome.

“Rome has wasted money for decades. I don’t want to spend another euro that is not budgeted,” the city’s newly elected mayor, Ignazio Marino, said. That’s probably a good place to start.

The fire broke out yesterday afternoon as the vessel sailed on the surface, Perth Now reports.

“Emergency response actions were taken to extinguish the fire. There were no causalities,” Defence said in a statement.

However, as a precaution, four members of the ship’s crew involved in responding to the fire were landed for observation. The Waller had recently completed scheduled maintenance and was at sea as part of her return to operations.

A full investigation will be held.

News_Image_File: The Collins Class Submarine HMAS Waller.

7:55am

This is a creepy one.

Police are trying to identify the victims of a 19-year-old Los Angeles roller rink employee who they say admitted to indulging in a self-described “foot fetish” with up to 200 young boys.

Julian Christopher Flores has been charged with one count each of false imprisonment and attempted lewd act on a child, the Los Angeles Timesreports. He has pleaded not guilty.

The newspaper cited court documents that show Flores admitted to taking up to 200 young boys into a maintenance room over the course of a year at Northridge Skateland, having them remove their socks and rub their feet on his hands or face to sexually arouse himself.

Flores’ statement to police came after one boy told his grandmother about an encounter in the maintenance room.

7:43am

Three years after the Fukushima disaster, 100 United States Navy personnel who responded to the emergency are suffering from unexplained illnesses such as cancer and leukaemia, CBS Baltimore reports.

One such sailor is Lieutenant Steve Simmons, who was serving on board the USS Ronald Reagan at the time of the disaster. Seven months after arriving home from his deployment, Lt Simmons’ health started to deteriorate.

“One day, I was coming out of my bathroom and my legs just buckled and that was pretty much it.”

Lt Simmons, along with more than 100 others from the USS Ronald Reagan, is suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company, claiming it hid the truth about radiation leaks at Fukushima.

News_Image_File: This photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) shows radioactive water leaking from a tank at the Fukushima power plant.

7:34am

Fallen swimming star Grant Hackett is believed to be preparing to go into the same US rehab clinic where footy ace Ben Cousins sought treatment.

The Herald Sun reports that the former Channel 9 sports anchor is having preliminary assessments before being admitted to the Summit Centre at Malibu on the California coast for addiction to Stilnox sleeping tablets.

It is understood Hackett will be admitted within days.

The exclusive clinic, which costs $3,000 a day, is where former Richmond star Ben Cousins sought refuge in 2007 as he battled cocaine and methamphetamine addiction.

News_Image_File: Grant Hackett.

7:24am

Katy Perry has engaged in a spot of impromptu midwifery, apparently helping with the delivery of a baby in someone’s living room. Isn’t that swell?

We don’t know any more details yet, but we’re sure they’ll come out eventually.

Finally you can add "helps delivers babies in living rooms" to my resume! It's been a miracle of a day...❤️ Auntie Katy aka Stylist Auntie 👶

Qantas’s hopes for a government debt guarantee appear to have been quashed with the federal government backing away from any such promises yesterday.

Instead, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government would support a “level playing field” for the carrier, which hints at a possible repeal of the Qantas Sale Act which limits foreign ownership levels.

Mr Palmer, whose Palmer United Party could dictate the fate of Qantas in the new Senate from July 1, has indicated his senators will block any such move.

“There will be no amendments to the Qantas Sale Act that our senators will vote for,” the lower house MP for the Queensland seat of Fairfax told the ABC.

“I’ve discussed it with all of them and there’ll be no amendments to the act and that’ll be it.”

News_Image_File: Federal MP Clive Palmer.

7:03am

“I never got to molest him or anything like that, he panicked and I panicked, and grabbed him around the throat and before I knew it he was dead.”

“I think so much reality television — and the women that dominate culture today — are pretty unfriendly towards one another,” Parker tells Harper’s Bazaar. “They use language that’s really objectionable and cruel and not supportive. I like to remember that Carrie and the other women in Sex and the City were really nice to each other.”

His boss and co-star Lena Dunham revealed the big news on Twitter, perhaps a little prematurely.

“We’re very proud of Adam Driver re: Star Wars,” she said. “He’s about to rip a hole in da force. Is that a thing? I guess I should see those movies?”

Details are being kept under wraps, but Variety says Driver’s part will be in the vein of iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.

News_Image_File: You could say it’s a bit of a coup for Adam Driver.

6:02am

The situation in Ukraine is only getting more chaotic.

Deposed, fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych has declared he’s still the Ukrainian leader, and dozens of heavily armed gunmen have seized control of government buildings in Crimea, raising the Russian flag.

“I have to ask Russia to ensure my personal safety from extremists,” Mr Yanukovych said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

“I still consider myself to be the legal head of the Ukrainian state, chosen through free elections by Ukrainian citizens.”

“Unidentified people with automatic weapons, explosives and grenades have taken over the governmental buildings ... I have given orders to the military to use all methods necessary to protect the citizens, punish the criminals and to free the buildings.”

News_Rich_Media: The parliament building in Ukraine's Crimea is seized by armed men described by witnesses as ethnic Russian separatists, in a direct challenge to Ukraine's new leaders. Mana Rabiee reports.

6:00am

Good morning, and welcome to our “headlines in a hurry” morning news coverage. We’ll be bringing you the morning’s biggest stories so you can get across the news quickly.